In immersion lithography, an immersion fluid having a refractive index higher than air is placed between the final lens element or window of the exposure system and the photoresist layer to be exposed. This affords higher numerical aperture imaging systems and increases the depth of focus so smaller features may be imaged with good process latitude. Immersion fluids can have adverse effects on the photoresist by extracting key components the photoresist such as sensitizers and photoacid generators and can have adverse effects on the exposure system such as clouding the immersed lens by depositing extracted photoresist materials on the lens. To overcome these problems, topcoats are used to coat the photoresist and protect the photoresist from the immersion fluid. Topcoat materials are further designed to exhibit high receding contact angles with the immersion fluid (usually water), in order to enable rapid scanning of the wafer without film pulling (i.e., leaving a trail of film or droplets behind the receding meniscus of the immersion fluid). Since these residual fluid droplets cause defects in the final lithographically printed features, the receding contact angle of the immersion fluid with the topcoat effectively determines maximum wafer scan rate and tool throughput. However, current topcoat materials interact with both the immersion fluid at the topcoat/immersion fluid interface and with the photoresist at the topcoat/photoresist interface. The requirement to optimize the topcoat interaction at both interfaces has limited the performance of topcoat materials, particularly in terms of increasing the receding contact angle (and thereby increasing maximum wafer scan rates). Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.